The Supreme Court has ruled that the 2nd amendment applies to individual citizens. But how does that affect you? How does it affect the lives of your and your children? Who is packing a pistol? Should you be carrying one too? What you should know before you step out your front door.

If you are anti-guns, or afraid of guns, or just don't like them and don't want them in your house, then this blog is for you.(It might just change your mind)

Thursday, January 10, 2013

5 facts about guns, schools, and violence

EDITORS NOTE: What the author forgets to mention when he says "violent crime and mass shootings have declined since the 1990s" is that is when the assault weapons ban expired and concealed carry became popular. (Ie: Since we've added more guns in the hands of good law abiding citizens, gun violence has gone down.)

by Ed Morrissey

Reason’s Nick Gillespie and Amanda Winkler have five key points about the actual status of school safety and the impact of guns on American society. The truth is that violent crime and
mass shootings have declined since the 1990s, [*]even with events like
Newtown and Aurora. Schools are safer now than in decades. However,
those data points don’t lend themselves to hysterics hoping to panic
people into bad legislation that won’t solve the problems they
supposedly address:

1. Violent crime – including violent crime using guns – has dropped massively over the past 20 years.The violent crime rate -
which includes murder, rape, and beatings – is half of what it was in
the early 1990s. And the violent crime rate involving the use of weapons has also declined at a similar pace.2. Mass shootings have not increased in recent years.
Despite terrifying events like Sandy Hook or last summer’s theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, mass shootings are not becoming more frequent.
“There is no pattern, there is no increase,” says criminologist James
Allen Fox of Northeastern University, who studies the issue. Other data
shows that mass killings peaked in 1929.3. Schools are getting safer.
Across the board, schools are less dangerous than they used be. Over the past 20 years,
the rate of theft per 1,000 students dropped from 101 to 18. For
violent crime, the victimization rate per 1,000 students dropped from 53
to 14.4. There Are More Guns in Circulation Than Ever Before.
Over the past 20 years, virtually every state in the country has
liberalized gunownership rules and many states have expanded concealed
carry laws that allow more people to carry weapons in
more places. There around 300 million guns in the United States and at
least one gun in about 45 percent of all households. Yet the rate
of gun-related crime continues to drop.5. “Assault Weapons Bans” Are Generally Ineffective.
While many people are calling for reinstating the federal ban on assault weapons – an arbitrary category of guns that has no clear definition – research shows it would have no effect on crime and violence.
“Should it be renewed,” concludes a definitive study, “the ban’s
effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too
small for reliable measurement.”

We have a violence-glorification problem, but that’s not something a law
can fix or a government stamp out — nor should we wish to live in a
society where it’s tried. We need to start pushing back in the culture
against the glorification of violence and death, not with legislation,
but by defending values of life in the public arena. We do not hide
behind failed legal approaches (ask Chicago and Washington DC how well
gun bans worked for them) as an avoidance measure to deal with issues of
mental illness and the degradation of values in our society.

True Hoplophobia, or the fear of guns, is a mental illness which, like other true phobias, incapacitates its victims with anxiety, shortness of breath, inability to think clearly and rationally. Obviously, we who are fearful of guns and their destructive power don't have true Hoplophobia. But we are still afraid. Why?

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PRO GUN QUOTES

Gun control:The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound. - L. Neil Smith

Gun control has not worked in D.C. The only people who have guns are criminals. We have the strictest gun laws in the nation and one of the highest murder rates. It's quicker to pull your Smith and Wesson than to dial 911 if you're being robbed. - Lieutenant Lowell Duckett, President Black Police Caucus, Special Assistant to Washington, D.C. Police Chief

They have gun control in Cuba. They have universal health care in Cuba. So why do they want to come here? - Paul Harvey, 1994

Suppose the Second amendment said A well-educated electorate being necessary for self-governance in a free state, the right of the people to keep and read books shall not be infringed. Is there anyone who would suggest that means only registered voters have a right to read? - Robert Levy, Georgetown University Professor

We should not blame a gun itself for any crime or any acts of violence, any more than we can blame a pen for misspelling a word. - Senator Bennett (R-UT), Congressional Record, 5/16/68

When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. - Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President of the United States

PRO GUN CONTROL QUOTES

For target shooting, that's okay. Get a license and go to the range. For defense of the home, that's why we have police departments.- James Brady

The most effective means of fighting crime in the United States is to outlaw the possession of any type of firearm by the civilian populace.- Janet Reno

We need to stand firm on behalf of sensible gun control legislation. We have to enact laws that will keep guns out of the hand of children and criminals and mentally unbalanced persons.- Hillary Clinton

Without stronger, sensible gun laws, thousands upon thousands of people will continue to die and be injured needlessly each year.- Brady Campaign

We don't need any additional gun laws, we need to enforce the ones that we've got!- Anonymous

One third of all households with children younger than eighteen have a firearm-Brady Campaign

If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an out-right ban, picking up every one of them... 'Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in,' I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren't here.-Senator Dianne Feinstein

This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!- Adolph Hitler